The Ceremony of Space: Diploma Project

Sweden is a secular country and the third least religious country in the world. One survey states that only 10% of the population classify themselves to be religious. You are no longer born into religion, it is a choice to join a community or not. Considering the country’s Christian history, there are countless religious buildings (churches mainly) in Sweden. Ceremonies like weddings, funerals and name givings mainly take place in religious buildings. If one wishes for it to be civil, religious symbols are removed. Most of the civil ceremonies that do take place are in the area of the capital of Stockholm. There are 13 chapels belonging to the Church that allow civil ceremonies. The second official alternative is the Town Hall and City Hall.

A place for contemplation, ceremony and celebration is multi-faceted, and deals with different layers of time. Time of life, the times we live in, the time that has past and the time that will come, which architecturally provides tools for how to go about creating an example of such a building.

The project consists of three parts. The first part looks at religious buildings in Stockholm and other references, trying to discover qualities they can possess. Secondly looking at Stockholm’s context and history to see how layers of time can be found and portrayed; both topical and existing as well as historical. Lastly, combining this information into a design.

Interior paving imitating the exisisting external paving only in a lighter hue to emphasize the transition between inside and outside. The tiles’ otherwise regular pattern gets irregularized by an archived mosaic belonging to the previous building on site before its demolition in the 1950s and 60s. The directions of the mosaic is determined by the demolished building’s old plan.